Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Shots and a Surprise

I took Jilbaby in for his 2 month check up. Masha Allah he has grown! He is now 21 inches and weighs 13 lbs! He's a short blob of a baby!!

He took his vaccinations like a champ. Cried until I picked him up and fed him. Then he was out and has been in and out of sleep all afternoon.

The doctor had a little surprise for me though - his blood tested positive for Hemoglobin E.. Most likely from Dad. She says not to worry but is there anyone out there who can edumacate me on it?? I got a pamphlet from the doctor and looked up some sites online, but I like to learn about things from people with first-hand experience...

6 comments:

Safa said...

I have no idea what that is.....

Solace said...

Nothing serious, I hope.

iMuslimah said...

I *think* it has to do with Thalassemia (a kind of anemia). Please correct me if I am wrong. Ask the pediatrician for more information- as I do not want to misinform or scare you. I would call the pediatrician back, as they should have told you more rather than leave you to the internet!

Inshaallah may your Jilbaby be healthy and strong always, Ameen.

iMuslimah

Caminante said...

Assalamu `alaykum,
For your child, having the E trait doesn't really have any serious health implication. You just need to be more vigilant of anemia symptoms, but most Hb E patients tend to have only a mild anemia. If your husband is form SE Asia, it's more probably him who transmitted it.

What I would do, however, is get tested with your husband. This is because you might have a b-thalassemia gene that you can pass to another future child and if your husband has HbE, then HbE + b-thalassemia = BAD NEWS.

The second thing is that your child should know that he has that trait so that his partner in the future gets tested for HbS or b-talassemia, since then it's complicated.

BTW, b-thalassemia and Hb E are different hemoglobinopathies.

That's about it.

All the best,
Caminante

PM said...

Hemoglobin E is very common hear where there is such a huge Asian population and yes it is related to Thalasemia. It varies in severity but is usually relatively minor and often requires no treatment except checking anemia levels regularly. From what I know, the main problem is if he were to marry someone with the same trait, their children would have a higher risk for anemia.

Our Rewards Await Us said...

Never heard of it...perhaps once you get some more info you can edumacate us all!